Cantor Seth Ettinger: Gesher Tzar M’od
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8au3nj5x7c&ab_channel=CantorSethEttinger
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila: Sephardic Torah
Who will be left to pray
gratitude for the body
of our planet
if currents fail?
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: confluence of climate grief and raging anti-semitism
Who will be left to pray
gratitude for the body
of our planet
if currents fail?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Bechukotai The Rejection of Rejection
Rabbi Sacks describes the last parashah of Leviticus as a “rejection of rejection”. In this, he reminds us to the original basis for much of the anti-Semitic history of our civilization—that God rejected the Jews—Abraham’s physical descendants—for Christians—Abraham’s spiritual descendants. He quotes Lev. 26:44-45, which states that God will not cast away His people, nor break His covenant with them.
Musical Treats: Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’ / Model Ani Cantor Josh Goldberg
Cantorial Soloist Jenni Asher of HAMAKOM and Cantor Jacqueline Rafii of Valley Beth Shalom sing a special duet of Mi Chamocha. To learn more about HAMAKOM Los Angeles, visit our website at https://www.hamakomla.org.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Parashat Behar Minority Rights
Rabbi Sacks observes that while the Torah commands us once to love our neighbor, it commands us 36 times to love the stranger. The obligation to the ger includes the right to live in the Holy Land and the right to share in its welfare provisions. This is an ancient law, way before the Talmudic principles of charity and care to non-Jews as well as Jews.
Mi Chamocha Cantor Jacquiline Raffi and Erev Cantor Jenni Asher
Cantorial Soloist Jenni Asher of HAMAKOM and Cantor Jacqueline Rafii of Valley Beth Shalom sing a special duet of Mi Chamocha. To learn more about HAMAKOM Los Angeles, visit our website at https://www.hamakomla.org.
Cantor Nissim: Yerushalayim Shel Zahav in honor of Yom Yerushalayim
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) May 28, 2022
Musical Treats: Avinu Shebashamayim by Sol Zim
Cantors Amy Robinson Katz, Elisa Waltzman, and Heather Hoopes Seid; Leeav Sofer; Eren Cantor Andrew Paskil; CBI Choir
Rabbi Deena Cowans: Parashat Emor Parashat Emor and Disability Justice
Rabbi Cowans addresses the conflict over the different standards for people with “normative” bodies and people with “other” bodies, and how the text seems discriminatory and ableist. She raises the concept that sacrificial work in the Temple was physically challenging. However, she asks, ‘why shouldn’t the Torah be more inclusive?’ She continues to say that “the messianic future is not one without disability. It is one where inclusion is innate.”